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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

In Defense of Hallowe'en

As I recall, I was always a black cat—not
so much because black cats were thought to be evil and witch’s familiars or
anything.I just loved cats, and so
thought black cats were cool.My
neighbour usually dressed up as a hobo, but me—I was always a black cat.I would plan my costume weeks in advance, and
help Mom make up the goody-bags of candy we distributed (including those
horrible caramel “kisses” that could pull the fillings out of your teeth), and
waited impatiently for the time when I could put on my costume and meet up with
my friends.In our neighbourhood we
never chanted, “Trick or treat!”Our
chant was always, “Shell out, shell out, the witches are out!”Not that many of us dressed up as witches,
but chanting, “Shell out, shell out, the blacks cats and the hobos are out”
sounded lame.When it came to
Hallowe’en, we were traditionalists.

The
Hallowe’en of my childhood was a long time ago, and much has changed since
then.In my day everyone knew that
witches did not exist, and now we have covens of them, as Wiccans look to take
their place in the spiritual markets of North America.Like I said, much has changed.But much continuity with the past exists
also.My own children experienced
Hallowe’en more or less like I did, as a time to dress up in costumes, go out
after dark with the friends, and knock on neighbours’ doors to collect
candy.Then came the time back at home of
watching re-runs of The Simpsons
Hallowe’en episodes and dividing up all the sugar-coated loot.One time I tried to light a candle and read
them scary stories in the dark, but that bombed.They much preferred The Simpsons.

We
are in a time of cultural shift in many different ways, as our society
increasingly loses its traditional foundation in the Christian Faith and slides
into a confusing and confused secularism, and the different ways of celebrating
Hallowe’en form a part of this shift.For some, Hallowe’en remains a time for dress-up and after-dark
cameraderie and collecting candy.Older
persons of darker disposition, and Wiccans, will co-opt the day for their own
purposes, making it respectively a celebration of counter-cultural violence, or
of their pagan religion.In a way
Hallowe’en in this time of cultural shift has suffered the same fate as
Christmas, for it has become many different things to many different
people.All of this makes it difficult
to answer the question, “What should Orthodox Christians think of
Hallowe’en?”For the question to be
answered first is, “Which Hallowe’en?”—the dress-up Hallowe’en of the young
candy-collectors, or the Hallowe’en of the Wiccans, or the Hallowe’en of those
using the day to glorify gore in the service of counter-cultural protest?Hallowe’en is not one thing, but many
things, and one size of answer does not fit all.

In
a time of confusion, it is natural to cast about urgently for simple answers,
and to feel threatened by the confusion.One wants to take refuge in certainties, labelling things as either
black or white, and finding different shades of grey seems only to increase the
confusion.Perhaps that is why some
take such deadly aim at Hallowe’en, labelling it as simply the celebration of
evil, violence, gore, and death, and renouncing it with passionate vituperation.Of course if Hallowe’en were simply the celebration of evil, violence, gore, and death, then
renunciation would be the only right response.But it seems to me that Hallowe’en is a complex and multivalent
phenomenon in our culture, and we run the risk of oversimplifying it if we fail
to recognize this.Fundamentalists are
among those who make such oversimplifications, for fundamentalists tend to
reduce all things to either black or white, and do not do well when confronted
with moral complexity, ambiguity, or shades of grey.

But,
one might ask, what’s wrong with fundamentalism?Shouldn’t one err on the side of
safety?I agree that if one has to err,
one should err on the side of safety, but I am less sure that fundamentalism is
all that safe.Every parent knows that
raising children means finding the right balance of strictness and laxity, of
prohibition and permission.One needs to
hold the parental reins tightly enough to keep children safe, but not so
tightly that they rebel, and finding the right balance is not always easy.If one equates Hallowe’en with a celebration
of death and violence and forbids all involvement with it, one might one day have
to pay the price if the children conclude that it was only really about
dressing up and getting candy.There are
many real dangers out there—dangers involving gangs, drugs, social diseases,
bullying, and pornography.We can’t be
always forbidding everything.Do we
really want to expend that much ammo on Hallowe’en?Shouldn’t we save our fire for areas where we
really need it?

But,
one might ask, what about the fear?Is
it right to scare children?Aren’t all
those monsters and grave-yards, and Freddy Kruegers sick and ungodly?Here one needs to step away from our own
culture for a bit and examine the larger question of scary stuff
generally.All cultures have had their
ghost stories.Everyone delights to sit
by the fire and listen to a hair-raising tale, which is why such things have
long been staples at Boy Scout camp-outs.Odd as it sounds, we love to be a bit scared—not traumatically terrified
necessarily, but a bit scared.That is
why roller-coasters exist—we ride them and scream in fright and get off them
and feel great—and go on them again for another ride.That is why monster movies were so popular, along
with amusement rides through the spook-house—after we are scared, we feel a
release and all laugh together.(In my
youth, the ride through the spook-house in the amusement park was called,
significantly, “Laff in the Dark”.)We
can delight and scream at Freddy Krueger brandishing something menacingly,
because we know we are in no real danger—just as we are in no real danger on a
roller-coaster.We get all the
adrenaline rush that comes from Freddy Krueger or from careening down a
roller-coaster hill with none of the danger. Most children can tell the difference between
the thrills and chills of Hallowe’en, and things that are really dangerous.Growing up healthy does not mean avoiding
everything scary, and never riding the roller-coaster or listening to a
ghost-story.Once again, balanced
parenting involves discerning the difference between the faux-dangers of
October 31 and the real ones we meet beginning the morning of November 1.

Fr. Lawrence on Ancient Faith:

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Fr. L. at oca.org

Followers

Father Lawrence Farley holds an M.Div.from Wycliffe College, Toronto School of Theology, and also completed a Certificate program at St. Tikhon's Seminary.

Since 1987 he has served as the pastor of St. Herman's Orthodox Church, OCA (Archdiocese of Canada) in Langley BC. Several priests, deacons, and lay members of new missions have emerged from the membership of St. Herman's.